How to Prevent Coccidiosis in Chicks & Chickens

Coccidiosis is a very common chicken disease that is most prevalent in young chicks and chickens. It is a protozoal disease that destroys the intestinal lining in a chicken’s gut. Acute coccidiosis can lead to death. The coccidia protozoa are found nearly everywhere there are chickens present. It naturally exists in the environment, but chickens can build up immunity to the protozoa through gradual or controlled exposure. Young chicks are most susceptible to cocci. Building up immunity to the coccidia protozoa takes time and the coccidia protozoa must be controlled in a brooder environment. Since coccidiosis cannot be eliminated from a chicken’s environment, it is best to know how to prevent coccidiosis and control the coccidia protozoa in the environment. This guide on how to prevent coccidiosis in chick and chickens will provide you with practical ways to control coccidia on the homestead!

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How to Prevent Coccidiosis

The best way to prevent coccidiosis in your flock or brood is by good management. The more chicks or chickens you have in one area, the more important good management becomes. If each chicken carries small amounts of the cocci in their gut and lots of chickens are housed together, high concentrations of the cocci could be eliminated through each chicken’s droppings into the environment. High concentrations of the cocci protozoa combined with ideal sporulation conditions can lead to a coccidiosis outbreak.

However, chickens can build up natural immunity to the protozoa through trickle infection. Through gradual exposure to limited amounts of the cocci protozoa, a chicken’s immune system can develop resistance to the protozoa and prevent infection. The more naturally the immunity occurs, the healthier your chickens will be.

The key to helping your flock build up immunity to cocci, even as young chicks, is two fold. First, control the overall health of your flock since a weak immune system cannot build immunity to coccidia. Second, prevent the cocci naturally found in the environment from proliferating. However, you don’t want to completely eliminate cocci from the environment. Then there would be no cocci occysts for a chicken to build immunity against. At the same time, you don’t want to allow the cocci occysts to proliferate so fast that a chicken doesn’t have time to build immunity and thus gets infected.

Since coccidia is always present in a chicken’s environment, learning how to control cocci is the best way to prevent a coccidiosis outbreak.

How to Control Coccidiosis in the Brooder

Helping your flock build immunity to coccidiosis starts when they are chicks. Chickens will immediately become exposed to cocci when they are introduced to a natural environment. Thus, it only makes sense to help young chicks build up immunity to cocci as soon as possible.

Here are some ways to control cocci in a brooder environment.

Tips for Controlling Cocci in the Brooder:

• Avoid Wire– Chicks raised on wire flooring are not exposed to enough cocci oocysts to build immunity to coccidiosis. They can become infected when they are moved into a natural environment and are suddenly exposed to the protozoa. Use a solid floor brooder when raising chicks.
• Clean Food & Water– Keeping your brood’s food and water free of droppings can help control infective oocysts. Chicks that eat food or water contaminated by infective oocysts may consume too many oocysts at a time. High concentrations of oocysts can lead to infection. Raised feeders and waterer are helpful for keeping the food and water clean.
• Clean & Dry Litter– You want to keep the brooder clean, but not too clean. If the litter is too clean, not enough infective occysts will be present to help the chicks build immunity. Basically, keep the brooder litter from becoming saturated with droppings.
• Compostable Litter– A good brooder litter choice is wood shavings. With wood shavings, you don’t have to remove the droppings but you can still easily manage the droppings by stirring them into the wood shavings. Of course, once the wood shavings become saturated with droppings, it will need to be changed out for fresh shavings. Or you can mix some fresh shavings into the old shavings to aid with composting the droppings.
• Prevent Roosting on Feeders & Waters– Keep your chicks from roosting on top their feeder and waterer. That bad habit can cause droppings to contaminate the food and water.
• Water Management– Make sure your brood’s water source does not leak and cannot be spilled into the brooder litter. Properly installed nipple drinkers or hanging water systems can help prevent leaks and spills.

How to Control Coccidiosis in the Environment

Coccidiosis is a self-limiting disease. Chicks or chickens who are infected can recover without treatment within a few weeks. But only if they are not continually exposed to new coccidia oocysts. You can prevent a re-infection by controlling how many infective oocysts are in the environment.

One great way to minimize the amount of cocci that your chicks are exposed to in their environment is by raising them in the spring or early summer. The cooler temperatures associated with spring (and early summer in some regions) keep the cocci oocysts from being prevalent in the environment. With that being said, if you live in a warm and humid region, you will want to take extra precautions to control coccidiosis in the environment.

Tips for Controlling Cocci in the Environment:

• Poop Control– The main way chicks are exposed to infective occysts is when the oocysts are present in a chick’s droppings. Controlling the build up of droppings in the environment is essential for controlling how many infective occysts the chicks are exposed to.
• Avoid Warm & Moist– Coccidia oocysts sporulate best in warm and moist environment. The brooder makes an ideal place for sporulation to occur. Keeping the brooder dry and well-ventilated (moisture can evaporate rather than condense in the litter) can help prevent the oocysts from proliferating too fast in a moist environment.
• Introduce Natural Exposure– Keep the brooder clean and at the same time expose your chicks to the cocci found in the natural environment. Bring your chicks on short field trips outside or place small clumps of grass/herbs in the brooder to introduce limited amounts of natural cocci to your chicks.
• Don’t Overcrowd– Make sure your chicks always have plenty of space in their brooder, even as they grow and mature. Preventing overcrowding will keep droppings from accumulating and keep cocci occysts at manageable levels.
• Fresh Ground– Coccidiosis usually infects suspectable birds, who then spread the oocysts to the rest of the flock or brood. If you recognize the early symptoms of a cocci infection, moving the chicks or birds to new ground can break up the cocci protozoa lifecycle. Moving your chicks to a new brooder once they reach 3 weeks of age or moving your flock to a new foraging pasture are two ways to help break up the cocci lifecycle.

How does a mother hen do it?

Chicks raised by a broody hen build up natural immunity to coccidiosis through exposure to their mother’s poop. Since a healthy mother hen will already have immunity to the cocci in her environment, she can pass that immunity on to her chicks. That is why you may see the young chicks pecking at their mother’s poop.

You may even notice that chicks raised in a brooder setting will peck at each other’s poop. While extensive pecking around in poop should be avoided, it is okay if your chicks occasionally peck at each other’s droppings to help build immunity.

How to Control Coccidiosis Through Diet

A nutritious, balanced diet paves the way for a chick (or chicken) to stay healthy and fight disease, including coccidiosis. Make sure you feed your chicks the appropriate feed for their age. You should also make sure that the feed is nutritionally balanced to prevent dietary deficiencies. Along with the feed, any treats or healthy snacks you give your chicks or chickens should add nutrition to their diet and not detract from the overall balanced of their dietary needs.

Certain dietary deficiencies can make chicks more susceptible to coccidiosis. A deficiency in vitamins A, K, or E, or a deficiency in the mineral selenium can predispose chicks to getting coccidiosis. A complete chick starter feed should ensure that your chicks get adequate amounts of those dietary elements. However, you can also incorporate healthy snacks into your brood’s diet that supply those essential nutrients.

Dietary Sources:

• vitamins A & K– pumpkin, sweet potato
• vitamin E- sunflower seeds
• selenium– eggs, alfalfa

The selenium content of plant-based supplements is dependent on the plant’s growing conditions. Plants that grow in selenium-rich soil will be rich in selenium, and likewise if the soil is selenium deficient. While a selenium deficiency can affect a chick’s health, too much selenium can also be toxic.

Note: Medicated chick starter feed is a drug-based solution for helping prevent coccidiosis in young chicks. It is not a natural supplement and it does not treat coccidiosis.

Natural Supplements for Coccidiosis

Whether you are trying to prevent coccidiosis or treat coccidiosis, holistic supplements can be helpful when raising your homestead brood naturally. Like I mentioned earlier, coccidiosis is a self-limiting disease and chicks can recover from coccidiosis without medication as long as they are not reinfected.

The main reason why medications are used during a cocci outbreak is to:

1. Control the number coccidia occysts expelled by the sick chickens.
2. Minimize damage to the intestines.
3. Relieve diarrhea and….
4. prevent sick birds from developing a potentially deadly bacterial infection.

However, drug medications don’t have to be used if the coccidiosis outbreak can be controlled to prevent the infection from becoming deadly. Holistic supplements can help prevent serious infections of coccidiosis in chicks and help them recover from mild infections of coccidiosis faster. Holistic supplements are NOT a treatment for acute coccidiosis.

Not all supplements are effective against all types of coccidiosis (there 9 different types of cocci protozoa). Holistic supplements mainly help a chick build up a strong immune system. A strong immune system reduces the chance of infection while the chick is building resistance to the cocci oocysts in its environment. Holistic supplements are not effective against the cocci itself. They work with the body to create a strong immune system to fight the chance of a cocci infection.

Holistic supplements in their natural state are not standardized to potency, so each supplement may have varying strengths. There are also no known effective amounts or dosages of holistic supplement for preventing, controlling, or treating coccidiosis.

With that being said, incorporating these supplements into your brood’s diet can help them build a strong immune system to reduce the chance of cocci oocysts causing an infection.

Natural Supplements for Cocci:

• grain– wheat bran
• oils– flaxseed, linseed, fish oil
• spice– turmeric
• herbs– sweet wormwood, oregano, echinacea
• natural extracts– neem fruit extract, green tea extract, citric extracts
• supplements– prebiotics & probiotics, vinegar

Vinegar is one natural supplement that actively works against cocci protozoa. Since vinegar is naturally antimicrobial and acidic, it inhibits the cocci protozoa from sporulating. Vinegar can be added to your brood’s drinking water in the ratio of 1 T. of vinegar per gallon of water (double the dosage if you know your water is alkaline). The acidic water will prevent any protozoa that land in the water from multiplying.

Make sure you also check out this list of other natural supplements for raising healthy chicks!

Natural Cocci Treatment:

There is one natural treatment that can be used for severe cocci infections if you choose to avoid drug medications at all costs. A milk flush is an old-time method of flushing the cocci oocysts from a chick’s body. Chickens are not accustomed to digesting the lactose in dairy products. When undigested lactose is present in the intestines, a chicken’s body will try to flush it out. It does so by drawing fluids from the bloodstream and causing diarrhea. The flush not only gets rid of the lactose but it also flushes out the cocci protozoa.

The treatment ratio for a milk flush is as follows: 1lb of milk powder per 3lbs of ration, administered for up to 7 consecutive days.

When using a milk flush, you will need to supply your chicks (or chickens) with plenty of water. The flush is drawing fluids from the body, so a chick will feel increased thirst and may drink up to 3x more water than normal. Providing plenty of water can help prevent dehydration due to the diarrhea from the flush. Dehydration can become fatal for young chicks.

You will also need to clean up the diarrhea messes on a regular basis. The messes must be cleaned up or the chicks (or chickens) moved to new ground to prevent reinfection from the birds consuming expelled cocci oocysts.

Milk Flush Caution

While the milk flush can be a successful natural alternative to drug medications, it does have one major drawback. The bacteria, E. coli, feeds on lactose. Small amounts of E. coli are naturally found in a chicken’s intestines. The bacteria can multiply when a chick or chicken is stressed or ill. The stress of diarrhea and a cocci infection, combined with the increase of lactose from a milk flush, can cause the E. coli bacteria to develop into a dangerous bacterial infection.

A milk flush may also flush out beneficial bacteria from the gut which are needed for a chicken to have a strong immune system. Prebiotics and probiotics can help replace beneficial gut bacteria that get removed during a milk flush. Supplemental prebiotics and probiotics should be supplied after the milk flush treatment is done.

Should chicks be vaccinated for coccidiosis?

Newly hatched chicks are not at risk for coccidiosis. The reason being that they have maternal antibodies that protect them from coccidiosis for awhile after they hatch. Their immune systems are also not mature enough to be favorable for the cocci protozoa to exist. Exposing chicks to cocci during this stage of life gives them the chance to develop an immune response without being infected.

Chicks need to be exposed to cocci in order to build immunity. Chicks raised by a mother hen are exposed to cocci through her droppings. When raising chicks in a brooder, you can mix soil or used coop litter into the brooder litter to create a source of cocci exposure. Lastly, the cocci vaccine can also expose newly hatched chicks to cocci.

The cocci vaccine contains a low dose of live, sporulated oocysts to stimulate a low level of infection. The cocci oocysts from the vaccine go through their normal lifecycle, get expelled, and then reinfect the vaccinated chicks until the chicks have built immunity to the cocci. There are two common cocci vaccines: Coccivac-B and Coccivac-D. Coccivac-B is effective against 4 common cocci species out of the 9 known cocci species. Coccivac-D is effective against 8 common cocci species.

However, the cocci vaccine is really only practical for hatcheries to use on their chicks. The cocci vaccine is usually only available in high quantity dosages (treating 1,000 chicks at a time) and the entire vaccine must be used once it is opened. The cocci vaccine is sprayed over the chicks after they hatch. When the chicks preen, they ingest the vaccine.

If you are ordering from a hatchery and have the choice to get your chicks vaccinated for coccidiosis, consider these pros and cons.

Cons of the Cocci Vaccine:

• Stress– The vaccine causes temporary stress from the low-grade cocci infection that occurs. Stress is not ideal if the chicks are going to be shipped, which is another cause of high stress.
• Cocci Species– The vaccine must include species of cocci that your chicks are likely to be exposed to in the evironment where you live.
• Sporulating Conditions– The vaccine relies on the natural lifecycle of the cocci to reinfect the chicks and help them build immunity. The proper sporulating environment must exist in the brooder. A litter moisture around 25-30% is needed for the oocysts to sporulate. Test the litter by squeezing a handful of the litter. If the litter clumps, it is too moist and can cause an overload of infective oocysts to be present. If the litter is dusty, the moisture is too low and the oocysts won’t sporulate and be effective.

Pros of the Cocci Vaccine:

• Simulates Natural Immunity– The vaccine is similar to when chicks are naturally exposed to cocci in their environment. Both natural and vaccine methods encourage a trickle infection to encourage immunity.
• Low Level Exposure– The vaccine provides low-level exposure to the cocci to prevent a massive build-up of oocysts.
• Immediate Exposure– Vaccination can be done early while the chicks are not as susceptible to cocci. Vaccinated chicks can develop protective immunity by the time they reach the age when nonvaccinated chicks would be more exposed to getting infected.
• Drug Free– The cocci vaccine does not cause the development of drug-resistant strains of cocci like cocci drug treatments do. It is not a drug and can essentially be used even if you want to raise your chicks naturally.

You can’t avoid coccidiosis. Or maybe I should say, your chicks and chickens cannot avoid coccidiosis. It is naturally found in the environment around chickens. So, the best way of dealing with it is through prevention and controlling factors that could cause a proliferation of cocci oocysts. Exposing your homestead brood to the natural environment at a young age is a great way to help them start building immunity to coccidiosis. A nutritious diet and proper cleaning practices can also help control coccidiosis. By raising your chicks naturally, you can help them stay healthy and mature into a productive, happy homestead flock!

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by Alexa